1643 First divorce in the colonies. In the first record of a legal divorce in the American colonies, Anne Clarke of the Massachusetts Bay Colony is granted a divorce from her absent and adulterous husband, Denis Clarke, by the Quarter Court of Boston, Massachusetts. In a signed and sealed affidavit presented to John Winthrop Jr., the son of the colony's founder, Denis Clarke admitted to abandoning his wife, with whom he had two children, for another woman, with whom he had another two children. He also stated his refusal to return to his original wife, thus giving the Puritan court no option but to punish Clarke and grant a divorce to his wife, Anne. The Quarter Court's final decision read: "Anne Clarke, beeing deserted by Denis Clarke hir husband, and hee refusing to accompany with hir, she is graunted to bee divorced."www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-divorce-in-the-colonies

Martha Washington Tinted engraving by John Chester Buttre (1821–1893), after the portrait by Gilbert Stuart

1781 American Revolutionary War: Richmond, Virginia, is burned by British naval forces led by Benedict Arnold. During the second British invasion of Virginia, Benedict Arnold reached Richmond with about 1,000 men. The militia had, for the most part, abandoned the few defensive positions around the capital leaving it open to the British. Prior to Arnold's arrival, the Virginia government had moved to the safety of Charlottesville. From Richmond, Arnold sent a letter to Governor Jefferson offering to spare the capital if he was allowed to seize tobacco unmolested. After Jefferson, refused, Arnold ransacked the city, destroying and burning homes and buildings as well as Government papers. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benedict_Arnold#British_Army_service

Battle of Saint Kitts, 1782, as described by an observer in a French engraving titled "Attaque de Brimstomhill"

1835 It was a record cold morning in the eastern U.S. The mercury at the Yale Campus in New Haven CT plunged to 23 degrees below zero, and reached 40 below in the Berkshire Hills of Connecticut. (David Ludlum)

Star of the West approaching Fort Sumter. Illustration from Frank Leslie's Weekly.

1861 The "Star of the West," a Union merchant vessel, leaves New York with supplies and 250 troops to relieve the beleaguered Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina. The vessel's departure came during the sensitive days following the secession of South Carolina on December 20, 1860. The primary cause for secession was the election of Republican Abraham Lincoln to the U.S. presidency the month before, but it was President James Buchanan, a Democrat, who had to deal with the first crisis after South Carolina's secession. Inside of Fort Sumter were Major Robert Anderson and 80 Federal soldiers surrounded by hostile South Carolinians, who were demanding evacuation by the Yankees. Anderson informed officials in Washington, D.C., that he needed supplies within a few weeks. Buchanan was reluctant to make any provocative moves but felt that some attempt to save Sumter should be made.

The Star of the West was chosen because a civilian vessel was less likely to agitate South Carolinians. The ship left New York on January 5, but it did not complete its mission. Arriving on January 9, the Star of the West encountered an alert South Carolina militia. Word of the mission had leaked to everyone, it seemed, except Anderson. He had received no notification of the mission and was surprised when cannon from the shore opened fire on the approaching ship. One shot hit the Star of the West, and the ship turned around before taking any more damage. Anderson withheld his fire on the hostile shore batteries, and the standoff in Charleston Harbor continued until April, when the South Carolinians opened the massive bombardment that started the Civil War.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/star-of-the-west-leaves-for-fort-sumteren.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_of_the_West

1889 The word hamburger first appeared in print in the Walla Walla Union, a Walla Walla, Washington, newspaper - according to the date given in the Oxford English Dictionary. The name comes a German food called hamburg steak, meaning "from Hamburg," not because it contains ham. In the 19th century, German immigrants migrated to North America bringing along the recipe for the hamburg steak, a form of pounded beef. American people adopted the hamburg steak but used the adjective form "hamburger" without "steak" at the end. The word appeared as an entry in 1902 edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. In 1902, the first description of a hamburg steak close to the American conception of the hamburger, gave a recipe calling for finely chopped beef mixed with onion and pepper.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamburger#History

West end of an auroral band, photographed 1 Feb 1892 by Dr. Brendel, published in Century Magazine

1892 The first successful auroral photograph was made by the German physicist Martin Brendel. Although it was limited to a blurred, low-contrast picture, it did convey some sense of the shape of the aurora. The task was not easy because the auroral light itself was generally feeble and flickering while photographic materials of the time required a long exposure, and was little sensitive to the deep reds in the aurora. One of his photographs, taken on 1 Feb 1892 was published in the Century Magazine of Oct 1897. Brendel had travelled to Alten Fiord, Lapland, to spend several months studying auroral displays and magnetic disturbances. The first colour pictures were not taken until about 1950, andLifemagazine published colour aurora photographs in 1953.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aurora

1903 Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock, 187 U.S. 553 (1903) was a United States Supreme Court case brought against the US government by the Kiowa chief Lone Wolf, who charged that Native American tribes under the Medicine Lodge Treaty had been defrauded of land by Congressional actions in violation of the treaty. The Court declared that the "plenary power" of the United States Congress gave it authority to unilaterally abrogate treaty obligations between the United States and Native American tribes. The decision marked a departure from the holdings of Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, 30 U.S. 1 (1831), and Worcester v. Georgia, 31 U.S. 515 (1832), which had shown greater respect for the autonomy of Native American tribes. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Wolf_v._Hitchcock

1904 Bitterly cold air gripped the northeastern U.S. Morning lows of -42 degrees at Smethport PA and -34 at River Vale NJ established state records. (The Weather Channel)

1920 New York Yankees major league baseball club announces its purchase of the heavy-hitting outfielder George Herman "Babe" Ruth from the Boston Red Sox for the sum of $125,000.

In all, Ruth had played six seasons with the Red Sox, leading them to three World Series victories. On the mound, Ruth pitched a total of 29 2/3 scoreless World Series innings, setting a new league record that would stand for 43 years. He was fresh off a sensational 1919 season, having broken the major league home run record with 29 and led the American League with 114 runs-batted-in and 103 runs. In addition to playing more than 100 games in left field, he also went 9-5 as a pitcher. With his prodigious hitting, pitching and fielding skills, Ruth had surpassed the great Ty Cobb as baseball’s biggest attraction.

Despite Ruth’s performance, the Red Sox stumbled to a 66-71 record in 1919, finishing at sixth place in the American League. New ownership took control of the club, and in early January, owner Harry Frazee made the decision to sell Ruth to the Yankees for $125,000 in cash and some $300,000 in loans (which Frazee reportedly used to finance his Broadway production interests). After the sale, the Yankees took over Ruth’s contract, which called for a salary of $10,000 per year. Aware of his value, Ruth had demanded a salary raise, and New York agreed to negotiate a new contract with terms that would satisfy their new slugger.

The deal paid off--in spades--for New York, as Ruth went on to smash his own home run record in 1920, hitting 54 home runs. He connected for 59 homers in 1921, dominating the game and increasing Yankee revenues to the point that the team was able to leave the Polo Grounds (shared with the New York Giants baseball team) and build Yankee Stadium, which opened in 1923 and became known as "the house that Ruth built." Throughout the rest of the 20th century, the legacy of Frazee’s lopsided trade continued to hover over major league baseball, as the Yankees won 39 AL pennants and 26 World Series titles and the Red Sox went 86 years without a World Series win. In 2004, the Sox finally shook the "Curse of the Bambino," coming from behind to beat the Yankees in the AL Championship and beating the St. Louis Cardinals to win their first Series since 1918.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/new-york-yankees-announce-purchase-of-babe-ruth

1922 Following her sensational divorce, popular American evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson, 32, resigned her denominational ordination and returned her fellowship papers to the General Council of the Assemblies of Goden.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aimee_Semple_McPherson

1925 Nellie Tayloe Ross of Wyoming becomes the first woman governor in the United States and Wyoming's 13th governor. Nellie's husband, William Bradford Ross, was elected governor of Wyoming, in 1922. In September of 1924, William had his appendix removed. There were complications with the surgery, and he died on October 2, 1924. It was only a few weeks before the November elections for Wyoming. The democrats asked Nellie if she would run. She said nothing in response. On January 5, 1925, Nellie was inaugurated. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nellie_Tayloe_Ross

1927 Judge Landis begins 3-day public hearing on 4 games thrown in 1917. Judge Landis begins a 3-day public hearing on the charges that four games played between Chicago and Detroit on September 2nd and 3rd, 1917, had been thrown to the White Sox. The White Sox, Swede Risberg contends, returned the favor for two games in 1919. Near the end of the 1917 season, some Chicago players contributed about $45 each to reward Detroit pitchers for winning the last series against Boston, helping Chicago clinch the pennant. No witnesses confirm any part of the story, although Tigers P Bill James denies ever receiving any money, and the others named deny all charges. A week after the hearing opens, Judge Landis clears all the accused, ruling lack of evidence of anything except the practice of players paying another team for winning. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenesaw_Mountain_Landis

1932 "The Shadow" debuted on the Colubmia Broadcast System (CBS) "The Shadow" earned a short-lived series of his own in January, 1932 then moved to NBC in the following October. The stories from Detective Story Magazine were adapted to radio format and was narrated by a character called "The Shadow". The Shadow caught on with listeners, who repeatedly asked Street and Smith Publications where they could find magazines featuring this now popular narrator. In response, Street and Smith hired a young writer named Walter B. Gibson to give the character life. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Shadow

A view of the Golden Gate Bridge from Marshal beach in November 2014.

1933 Construction of the Golden Gate Bridge begins in San Francisco Bay on the Marin County side. It was the first in the U.S. to have piers built in open ocean, and also first to span the outer mouth of a major ocean harbour. The chief engineer was Joseph B. Strauss. The length of the main structure of the bridge is 8,940-ft, with towers rising 746-ft above the water and a minimum clearance of 220-ft. Its first public use was on Pedestrian Day on 27 May 1937, and it was ceremoniously opened for vehicles the following day.

Following the Gold Rush boom that began in 1849, speculators realized the land north of San Francisco Bay would increase in value in direct proportion to its accessibility to the city. Soon, a plan was hatched to build a bridge that would span the Golden Gate, a narrow, 400-foot deep strait that serves as the mouth of the San Francisco Bay, connecting the San Francisco Peninsula with the southern end of Marin County.

Although the idea went back as far as 1869, the proposal took root in 1916. A former engineering student, James Wilkins, working as a journalist with the San Francisco Bulletin, called for a suspension bridge with a center span of 3,000 feet, nearly twice the length of any in existence. Wilkins’ idea was estimated to cost an astounding $100 million. So, San Francisco's city engineer, Michael M. O'Shaughnessy (he’s also credited with coming up with the name Golden Gate Bridge), began asking bridge engineers whether they could do it for less.

Engineer and poet Joseph Strauss, a 5-foot tall Cincinnati-born Chicagoan, said he could.

Eventually, O'Shaughnessy and Strauss concluded they could build a pure suspension bridge within a practical range of $25-30 million with a main span at least 4,000 feet. The construction plan still faced opposition, including litigation, from many sources. By the time most of the obstacles were cleared, the Great Depression of 1929 had begun, limiting financing options, so officials convinced voters to support $35 million in bonded indebtedness, citing the jobs that would be created for the project. However, the bonds couldn’t be sold until 1932, when San-Francisco based Bank of America agreed to buy the entire project in order to help the local economy.

The Golden Gate Bridge officially opened on May 27, 1937, the longest bridge span in the world at the time. The first public crossing had taken place the day before, when 200,000 people walked, ran and even roller skated over the new bridge.

1934 Fenway Park catches fire for 2nd time (May 8th 1926 also) Beginning in the fall of 1933, renovations began at Fenway Park. Duffy's Cliff was removed, wooden seats in right and center field were replaced by concrete stands and the entire grandstand was enlarged. The seating capacity increased from 27,642 to 33,817. The most significant feature added to the ballpark was the 37 foot high wall in left field. The wall was covered with advertisements and at the base was a hand operated scoreboard. A fire in January 1934 destroyed most of the construction, however the ballpark was complete when it reopened on April 17, 1934. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenway_Park

1937 Only unicameral state legislature in US opens first session (Nebraska) Implementation of the unicameral legislature in 1937 cut government costs for obvious reasons. Legislative membership went from 133 in the bicameral to 43 in the new single house - nearly a 70 percent reduction. The one-house system was more efficient than its predecessor. The number of committees was pared down from 61 to 18, and 581 bills were introduced in 1937 as opposed to twice that many the previous session. The last bicameral session in 1935 ran 110 days, passed 192 bills and cost $202,593. The first unicameral session two years later ran 98 days, passed 214 bills and cost $103,445. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nebraska#Legislative_branch

1940 FM radio, with clear, static-free signal, is demonstrated to the Federal Communications Commission for the first time. FM not only eliminated static. It also produced a better sound, three times better than AM. FM delivered sounds that spanned the full range of the human ear -- from the deep rumble of a kettle drum to the delicate keening of a flute, spanning a range between 50 cycles and 15,000 cycles. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FM_broadcasting

1941 "Chica Chica Boom Chic"by Carmen Miranda was recorded on Decca. Carmen Miranda. It seems she sang the song in the film, "That Night in Rio". "That Night in Rio" starred Alice Faye, Carmen Miranda, and Don Ameche and made Carmen Miranda a star. "Chica Chica Boom Chic" and "I Yi Yi Yi (I Like you Very Much)" were huge hits for Miranda as she rolled her eyes and hips, emitting her special brand of magic.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen_Miranda

Ensign Kiyoshi Ogawa, who flew his aircraft into the USS Bunker Hill during a kamikaze mission on 11 May 1945

1945 Kamikaze pilots get first order. Japanese pilots received the first order to become kamikaze, meaning "divine wind" in Japanese. The suicidal blitz of the kamikazes revealed Japan's desperation in the final months of World War II. Most of Japan's top pilots were dead, but youngsters needed little training to take planes full of explosives and crash them into ships. At Okinawa, they sank 30 ships and killed almost 5,000 Americans.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/kamikaze-pilots-get-first-orderen.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamikaze

1948 Warner Brothers-Pathe showed the very first colour newsreel, as pictures of the Tournament of Roses Parade taken New Years Day and the Rose Bowl football classic were seen by theatre audiences. It was made using the Cinecolor process.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinecolor

1949 President Harry S Truman labels his administration the "Fair Deal" At first, Truman followed FDR's policies, but he soon developed his own. He presented to Congress a 21-point program, proposing the expansion of Social Security, a full-employment program, a permanent Fair Employment Practices Act, and public housing and slum clearance. The program, Truman wrote, "symbolizes for me my assumption of the office of President in my own right." It became known as the Fair Deal. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_Deal

1957 In a speech given to the United States Congress, President Dwight D. Eisenhower announces the establishment of what will later be called the Eisenhower Doctrine. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisenhower_Doctrine

1957 Dodgers' Jackie Robinson retires rather than be traded to New York Giants. The Dodgers traded Jackie Robinson to the Giants for pitcher Dick Littlefield and $35,000. Robinson retires rather than accept the trade. The most historically significant baseball player ever, Robinson was the first black man to play in the majors in the 20th century, to win the MVP award, and to be elected to the Hall of Fame; and the first Rookie of the Year.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackie_Robinson

1959 Buddy Holly releases his last record "It Doesn't Matter Any More" It Doesn't Matter Any More" was recorded October 20 or 21, 1958 in New York City. Paul Anka wrote it specifically for Holly. It was one of the first Holly recordings to use string arrangements to highlight his vocals and became a hit shortly after Holly died in a plane crash in 1959.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddy_Holly

Pope Paul VI

1964 Following an unprecedented pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Paul VI met with Greek Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem. It was the first such meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in over 500 years (since 1439). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Paul_VI#Orthodox

Jock Yablonskiwww.youtube.com/watch?v=x650zFuARe81970 The United Mine Workers Killings. The bodies of dissident union leader Jock Yablonski, his wife, and daughter are discovered in their Clarksville, Pennsylvania, farmhouse by Yablonski's son Kenneth. The family had been dead for nearly a week, killed on New Year's Eve by killers hired by the United Mine Workers (UMW) union leadership. Yablonski's murder eventually brought down the whole union leadership and ended the widespread corruption of the union under UMW President Tony Boyle.

Jock Yablonski ran against Boyle in the 1969 election for the leadership of the UMW. He accused Boyle of nepotism and misuse of union funds, while also pushing for greater voting rights for rank-and-file members. On December 9, 1969, Boyle won the election but Yablonski asked the U.S. Labor Department to investigate the election for possible fraud.

At that point, Boyle sought to have Yablonski killed. Paul Gilly and Claude Vealey were hired by a UMW leader, Albert Pass, to carry out the murder. In mid-December, Gilly and Vealey went to Yablonski's house but lost their nerve at the last moment. When they returned two weeks later with Buddy Martin, they shot Yablonski, his wife, Margaret, and 25-year-old daughter, Charlotte.

1982 A three day rainstorm in the San Francisco area finally came to an end. Marin County and Cruz County were drenched with up to 25 inches of rain, and the Sierra Nevada Range was buried under four to eight feet of snow. The storm claimed at least 36 lives, and caused more than 300 million dollars damage. (Storm Data)

1982 A series of landslides near San Francisco, California, kills up to 33 people and closes the Golden Gate Bridge. In all, an amazing 18,000 different landslides took place in the San Francisco Bay Area following a very heavy rain storm.

Two fast-moving fronts carrying extremely heavy rain passed through San Francisco in a 36-hour period beginning on January 4, during which the area received an amount of rain equal to half its average annual precipitation. Some areas received as much as 24 inches of rain on January 4 and 5. On January 5, the rain began to trigger thousands of separate landslides in the Bay Area hills.

Almost without exception, the slides caught their victims completely unaware. San Francisco State University professor Kai-yu Hsu was in the basement of his home in Tiburon. Suddenly, there was a deafening roar and, within seconds, the home was gone--it crashed into a park at the bottom of a hill. His son, Roland, witnessed the tragedy while standing just outside the home.

In all, about 7,800 homes and businesses were seriously damaged by slides and falling trees. Roads became impassable when mud and large boulders crashed down onto them. The Golden Gate Bridge even had to close due to a landslide. When seven homes in Love Creek collapsed on a hillside, 10 people died instantly. It is believed that between 22 and 33 people were killed in total. Damages exceeded $100 million, and the region was declared a federal disaster area. It was the Bay Area's worst natural disaster since a 1906 earthquake.

1987 A massive winter storm spread heavy snow from the southwestern U.S. into the Rockies. In Utah, the Alta ski resort reported a storm total of 42 inches of snow. Winds gusted to 64 mph at Albuquerque NM. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1988 Thunderstorms helped produce heavy snow in the Lower Great Lakes Region. Snow fell at the rate of four to five inches per hour, and snowfall totals ranged up to 69 inches at Highmarket NY. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1989 Baseball signs $400M with ESPN, showing 175 games in 1990.

1989 A strong Pacific cold front produced heavy snow and high winds in Nevada. Winds gusted to 80 mph north of Reno, while up to two feet of snow blanketed the Lake Tahoe ski area. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1990 Thunderstorms produced heavy rain in the Central Gulf Coast Region. New Orleans, LA, was drenched with 4.05 inches of rain in 24 hours. An overnight storm blanketed the mountains of northern Utah with up to eleven inches of snow. (National Weather Summary) (Storm Data)

1993 Washington state executes Westley Allan Dodd by hanging (the last legal hanging in America).

1999 State record low temperature of -36° in Congerville, IL

2000 The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) announced the final stage of the worldwide initiative to eradicate Polio.

2004 Foreigners arriving at U.S. airports were photographed and fingerprinted. The program, aimed at letting Customs officials instantly check an immigrant or visitor's criminal background, targets foreigners entering the 115 U.S. airports that handle international flights, as well as 14 major seaports. The only exceptions will be visitors from 27 countries - mostly European nations - whose citizens are allowed to come to the United States for up to 90 days without visas.

2004 NASA released a 3-D, black-and-white panoramic picture of the Mars surface. Spirit's fastest connection, at 128K, is expected to be through its UHF antenna. The antenna transmits data to the Mars Global Surveyor and 2001 Mars Odyssey spacecraft for later relay to Earth. The two satellites are in orbit around Mars. Scientists marveled at the crisp black-and-white photograph of the surface of Mars and picked the likely first target the six-wheeled rover would visit: a dust-filled depression that tired members of the mission quickly dubbed "Sleepy Hollow."

2004 After 14 years of denials, Pete Rose publicly admitted that he'd bet on baseball. In his new book, written with Rick Hill, "My Prison Without Bars," Pete Rose admitted for the first time publicly that he placed bets with bookies on Cincinnati Reds games as often as five times a week while managing the team in 1987.

2005 Eris, the largest known dwarf planet in the solar system, is discovered by the team of Michael E. Brown, Chad Trujillo, and David L. Rabinowitz using images originally taken on October 21, 2003, at the Palomar Observatory.

Births

1771 David Wilkinson (d 1852) American inventor and manufacturer who patented a machine for cutting screw threads which incorporated the slide rest (14 Dec 1798). It had a heavy carriage supported on three rollers. With his father and brother, Wilkinson supplied the cotton industry by machining, casting and forging iron parts to build textile manufacturing equipment for such factories as Slater Mill, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. With such business to keep him occupied, Wilkinson did not further develop his screw machine. His business failed in the the financial panic of 1829. However, the slide-rest invention was widely applied by others, especially making firearms for the U.S. government. He petitioned Congress in 1848 for a financial reward for his invention and received $10,000.

1778 Zebulon Montgomery Pike Jr. (d 1813) American soldier and explorer for whom Pikes Peak in Colorado is named. His Pike expedition mapped much of the southern portion of the Louisiana Purchase.

1779 Commodore Stephen Decatur, Jr. (d 1820) American naval officer notable for his heroism in the Barbary Wars and in the War of 1812. He was the youngest man to reach the rank of captain in the history of the United States Navy, and the first American celebrated as a national military hero who had not played a role in the American Revolution.

1786 Thomas Nuttall (d 1859) English naturalist and botanist known for his discoveries of North American plants. He went to the newly formed United States at a perfect time to be an explorer of its expanding boundaries. Gifted as a botanist and ornithologist, he was one of the most well-travelled, adventurous and knowledgeable of the early naturalists on the American frontier. His career in botany was sparked within a day of his arrival in Philadelphia in 1808 by Benjamin Smith Barton, whom he met to enquire about the curious name of the cat-brier plant he had found. After some formal instruction in botany from Barton, Nuttall was engaged in field work for Barton, collecting plants in the salt marshes of Delaware and the Chesapeake Bay.

1794 Edmund Ruffin (d 1865) The father of soil chemistry in the U.S., who showed how to restore fertility to depleted soil. Though without formal science education, Ruffin determined that the soil of southeast plantations that had been overused with single-crop production had become more acidic and unable to benefit from fertilizers. The remedy he published (1818) was the spreading of marl to neutralize the acidity. He went further by specifying effective methods of fertilizing, plowing and rotating crops to increase production of grains. He expanded his recommendations in book and journal article form, as well lecturing up to the 1850's. He then became an outspoken secessionist, and took his own life upon the South losing in the U.S. Civil War.

1855 King Camp Gillette (d 1932) American businessman, popularly known as the inventor of the safety razor, although several models were in existence prior to Gillette's design. Gillette's innovation was the thin, inexpensive, disposable blade of stamped steel. Gillette is widely credited with inventing the so-called razor and blades business model, where razors are sold cheaply to increase the market for blades, but in fact he did not adopt this model until his competitors did.

1864 Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson (d 1931), American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL).

Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the minor league Western League—into a "clean" alternative to the National League, which had become notorious for its rough-and-tumble atmosphere. To encourage a more orderly environment, Johnson strongly supported the new league's umpires, which eventually included Hall of Famer Billy Evans.

With the help of league owners and managers such as Charles Comiskey, Charles Somers and Jimmy McAleer, Johnson lured top talent to the AL, which soon rivaled the more established National League. Johnson dominated the AL until the mid-1920s, when a public dispute with Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis culminated in his forced resignation as league president. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ban_Johnson

1874 Joseph Erlanger, American physiologist, Nobel laureate (d. 1965), discovered that fibres within the same nerve cord possess different functions. In 1910 he accepted the chair of physiology at Washington University in St. Louis, which he held until his retirement in 1946. While his department became one of the major research centers in physiology in America. Erlanger continued his work on cardiovascular physiology. During WW I, he carried out research on the problem of shock. In 1921 he shifted his interests to neurophysiology, and began joint work, with colleague Herbert Gasser, on the amplification and recording of nerve action potentials with the cathode ray oscilloscope, for which they were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1944.

1882 Herbert Bayard Swope (d 1958) U.S. editor and journalist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he was the younger brother of businessman Gerard Swope. Swope spent most of his career at the New York World newspaper. He was the first recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for Reporting in 1917 for a series of articles that year entitled "Inside the German Empire" The articles formed the basis for a book released in 1917 entitled Inside The German Empire: In The Third Year Of The War, which he wrote with James W. Gerard. He is known for saying, "I can't give you a sure-fire formula for success, but I can give you a formula for failure: try to please everybody all the time." He is also credited with coining the phrase "Cold War".

1893 Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (née Nevills) (d June 29, 1987)[1] was an American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter.A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. She played a guitar strung for a right-handed player, but played it upside down, as she was left-handed.[2] This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Cotten

Jean Piccard and his wife Jeannette Piccard on a stratosphere flight in Dearborn,...HD Stock Footagewww.youtube.com/watch?v=rU5U4JLUcXk1895 Jeannette Ridlon Piccard (d 1981) American high-altitude balloonist, and in later life an Episcopal priest. She held the women's altitude record for nearly three decades, and according to several contemporaneous accounts was regarded as the first woman in space. Jeannette was the first licensed female balloon pilot in the U.S., and the first woman to fly to the stratosphere. Accompanied by her husband, Jean—a member of the Piccard family of balloonists and the twin brother of Auguste Piccard—she reached a height of 10.9 miles (17.5 km) during a record-breaking flight over Lake Erie on October 23, 1934, retaining control of the balloon for the entire flight. After Jean's death in 1963, she worked as a consultant to the director of NASA's Johnson Space Center for several years, talking to the public about NASA's work, and was posthumously inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998.

From the late 1960s onwards, Jeannette returned to her childhood interest in religion. She was ordained a deacon of the Episcopal Church in 1971, and on July 29, 1974, became one of the Philadelphia Eleven, the first women to be ordained priests—though the ordinations were regarded as irregular, performed by bishops who had retired or resigned. Jeannette was the first of the women to be ordained that day, because at 79 she was the oldest, and because she was fulfilling an ambition she had had since she was 11 years old. When asked by Bishop John Allin, the head of the church, not to proceed with the ceremony, she is said to have told him, "Sonny, I'm old enough to have changed your nappies." In September 1976, the church voted to allow women into the priesthood, and Jeannette served as a priest in Saint Paul, Minnesota, until she died at the age of 86.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeannette_Piccard

1895 Elizabeth "Libba" Cotten (d 1987) American blues and folk musician, singer, and songwriter. A self-taught left-handed guitarist, Cotten developed her own original style. Her approach involved using a right-handed guitar, (not re-strung for left-handed playing) in standard tuning; Essentially, holding a right-handed guitar upside down. This position required her to play the bass lines with her fingers and the melody with her thumb. Her signature alternating bass style has become known as "Cotten picking".

1904 Jeane L. Dixon (d 1997) one of the best-known American astrologers and psychics of the 20th century, due to her syndicated newspaper astrology column, some well-publicized predictions, and a best-selling biography.

1906 Dame Kathleen (Mary) Kenyon (d 1978) English archaeologist whose excavations included finding evidence that pushed back the era of occupation of the mound at Jericho from the Bronze Age and Neolithic to the Natufian culture at the end of the Ice Age (10,000 – 9,000 BC), revealing that it was the oldest known continuously occupied human settlement. She established that the city itself spanned more than 3,800 years. Over 100 tombs were discovered at Jericho during excavations (1952-58). Kenyon helped pioneer stratigraphic excavations as a more scientific approach to archaeological digs, a technique she learned while working with Sir Mortimer Wheeler at his major excavation of the Romano-British city of Verulamium (north of London).

1909 Stephen Cole Kleene (d 1994) American mathematician who helped lay the foundations for theoretical computer science. One of many distinguished students of Alonzo Church, Kleene, along with Alan Turing, Emil Post, and others, is best known as a founder of the branch of mathematical logic known as recursion theory. Kleene's work grounds the study of which functions are computable. A number of mathematical concepts are named after him: Kleene hierarchy, Kleene algebra, the Kleene star (Kleene closure), Kleene's recursion theorem and the Kleene fixpoint theorem. He also invented regular expressions, and was a leading American advocate of mathematical intuitionism.

1914 Aaron "Bunny" Lapin (d 1999) American inventor of Reddi-Wip, whipped cream dessert topping in a spray can (1948). First sold by St. Louis milkmen, its distribution expanded quickly across N. America during America's postwar desire for convenience. Lapin became known as the Whipped Cream King. Lapin established Clayton Corp. to made his own valves for the can. He was issued U.S. patent 2,704,172 on 10 Mar 1955 for the valve. Clayton now also makes industrial valves, closures, caulk, adhesives and foamed plastic products such as insulation and cushioning materials. In 1998, Time listed Reddi-wip as one of the century's 100 great consumer items, along with the pop-top can and Spam. Reddi-Wip is now a brand of ConAgra's Beatrice Food

1917 Jane Wyman born Sarah Jane Mayfield (d 2007)American singer, dancer, and character actress of film and television. She began her film career in the 1930s, and was a prolific performer for two decades. She received an Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in Johnny Belinda (1948), and later achieved success during the 1980s for her leading role in the television series Falcon Crest. Wyman was the first wife of Ronald Reagan, marrying him in 1940 and divorcing him in 1948, long before he ran for any public office.

1926 William De Witt Snodgrass (d 2009) American poet who also wrote under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons. He won the 1960 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry.

1928 Walter Frederick Mondale American Democratic Party politician, who served as the 42nd Vice President of the United States, serving under President Jimmy Carter (1977–81), and as a United States Senator for Minnesota (1964–76). He was the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in the United States presidential election of 1984.

1929 Wilbert Harrison (d 1994) American singer, pianist, guitarist and harmonica player. Harrison had a Billboard #1 record in 1959 with the song "Kansas City". The song was written in 1951 and was one of the first credited collaborations by the team of Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc. Harrison recorded "Kansas City" for the Harlem based entrepreneur Bobby Robinson.

1931 Robert Selden Duvall American actor and director. He has won an Academy Award, two Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards over the course of his career. He began appearing in theatre during the late 1950s, moving into small, supporting television and film roles during the early 1960s in such works as To Kill a Mockingbird (1962) and Captain Newman, M.D. (1963). He started to land much larger roles during the early 1970s with movies like MASH (1970) and THX 1138 (1971). This was followed by a series of critical successes: The Godfather (1972), The Godfather Part II (1974), Network (1976), The Great Santini (1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), and True Confessions (1981).

Since then Duvall has continued to act in both film and television with such productions as Tender Mercies (1983), The Natural (1984), Colors (1988), Lonesome Dove (1989), Stalin (1992), The Man Who Captured Eichmann (1996), A Family Thing (1996), The Apostle (1997), A Civil Action (1998), Gods and Generals (2003) and Broken Trail (2006).

1932 Charles Henry "Chuck" Noll former professional American football player and coach, and a member of the Sid Gillman coaching tree. He served most notably as the head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers of the National Football League from 1969 to 1991. Noll has more Super Bowl wins (4) than any other head coach in NFL history, and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1993.

1936 Florence Virginia King American novelist, essayist and columnist. While her early writings focused on the American South and those who live there, much of King's later work has been published in National Review. Until her retirement in 2002, her column in National Review, "The Misanthrope's Corner", was known for "serving up a smorgasbord of curmudgeonly critiques about rubes and all else bothersome to the Queen of Mean", as the magazine put it. After leaving retirement in 2006, she began writing a new column for National Review entitled "The Bent Pin."

King is a traditionalist conservative, but not a "movement conservative," and she objects to much of the populist direction of the contemporary American Right. King labels herself a "misanthrope". She is an active Episcopalian (though she often refers to her agnosticism), a member of Phi Alpha Theta, and a monarchist.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_King

1941 Charles Robert "Chuck" McKinley Jr. (d 1986) American men’s amateur tennis player of the 1960s. He is remembered as an undersized, hard working dynamo, whose relentless effort and competitive spirit led American tennis to the top of the sport during a period heavily dominated by Australians. McKinley won the Men's Singles Championship at Wimbledon, and as a result was ranked the number one player in the world. He paired with his college rival, Dennis Ralston, to win the 1963 Davis Cup, the only interruption in eight unbroken years of Australian dominance. He also paired with Ralston to win the U.S. men’s doubles championships three times, in 1961, 1963, and 1964.

1942 Charles Peete "Charlie" Rose, Jr. American television talk show host and journalist. Since 1991, he has hosted Charlie Rose, an interview show distributed nationally by PBS since 1993. He was concurrently a correspondent for 60 Minutes II from its inception in January 1999 until its cancellation in September 2005, and was later named a correspondent on 60 Minutes

1944 Edward Gene "Ed" Rendell 45th and current Governor of Pennsylvania. Rendell, a member of the Democratic Party, was elected Governor of Pennsylvania in 2002, and his term of office began January 21, 2003. He is currently a Member of the Democratic Governors Association Executive Committee, and also served as General Chairman of the Democratic National Committee during the 2000 presidential election. From 2008 to 2009, Governor Rendell was the Chairman of the National Governors Association. He is married to Marjorie Rendell, a Federal judge for the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Rendell is also a faculty member of the Fels Institute of Government at the University of Pennsylvania, and chair of Team Pennsylvania Foundation.

1945 Diane Keaton born Diane Hall American film actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. Keaton began her career on stage, and made her screen debut in 1970. Her first major film role was as Kay Adams-Corleone in The Godfather (1972), but the films that shaped her early career were those with director and co-star Woody Allen beginning with Play It Again, Sam in 1972. Her next two films with Allen, Sleeper (1973) and Love and Death (1975), established her as a comic actor. Her fourth, Annie Hall (1977), won her the Academy Award for Best Actress.

1953 George John Tenet Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) for the United States Central Intelligence Agency, and is Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University. Tenet held the position as the DCI from July 1997 to July 2004, making him the second-longest-serving director in the agency's history–behind Allen Welsh Dulles–as well as one of the few DCIs to serve under two U.S. presidents of opposing political parties. In February 2008, he became a managing director at the merchant bank Allen & Company.

1527 Felix Manz (b. ca. 1498), Swiss Anabaptist reformer, was drowned in the Limmat River by Swiss religious authorities as punishment for his belief and practice of rebaptizing.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Manz

1796 Samuel Huntington (b 1731 [O.S. July 5, 1731]) jurist, statesman, and Patriot in the American Revolution from Connecticut. As a delegate to the Continental Congress, he signed the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation. He also served as President of the Continental Congress from 1779 to 1781, chief justice of the Connecticut Supreme Court from 1784 to 1785, and the 3rd Governor of Connecticut from 1786 until his death.

"Andes near Alparmarca, Peru: Sketched from an Elevation of 16,000 Feet".Illustration by Alfred Agate

1860 Saint John Nepomucene Neumann, C.Ss.R., (Czech: Jan Nepomucký Neumann, German: Johannes Nepomuk Neumann), (b 1811) Redemptorist missionary to the United States who became the fourth Bishop of Philadelphia (1852–60) and the first American bishop (and thus far the only male citizen) to be canonized. While Bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann founded the first Catholic diocesan school system in the United States.

1891 Emma Abbott (b 1850) American operatic soprano and impresario known for her pure, clear voice of great flexibility and volume.

1933 John Calvin Coolidge, Jr., (b 1872) 30th President of the United States (1923–1929). A Republican lawyer from Vermont, Coolidge worked his way up the ladder of Massachusetts state politics, eventually becoming governor of that state. His actions during the Boston Police Strike of 1919 thrust him into the national spotlight. Soon after, he was elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924, he gained a reputation as a small-government conservative.

Coolidge restored public confidence in the White House after the scandals of his predecessor's administration, and left office with considerable popularity. As a Coolidge biographer put it, "He embodied the spirit and hopes of the middle class, could interpret their longings and express their opinions. That he did represent the genius of the average is the most convincing proof of his strength." Many later criticized Coolidge as part of a general criticism of laissez-faire government. His reputation underwent a renaissance during the Ronald Reagan Administration, but the ultimate assessment of his presidency is still divided between those who approve of his reduction of the size of government programs and those who believe the federal government should be more involved in regulating and controlling the economy

1939 Amelia Mary Earhart (b 1897; missing July 2, 1937; declared legally dead January 5, 1939) American aviation pioneer and author. Earhart was the first woman to receive the U.S. Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for becoming the first aviatrix to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean. She set many other records, wrote best-selling books about her flying experiences and was instrumental in the formation of The Ninety-Nines, an organization for female pilots. Earhart joined the faculty of the world-famous Purdue University aviation department in 1935 as a visiting faculty member to counsel women on careers and help inspire others with her love for aviation. She was also a member of the National Woman's Party, and an early supporter of the Equal Rights Amendment.

During an attempt to make a circumnavigational flight of the globe in 1937 in a Purdue-funded Lockheed Model 10 Electra, Earhart disappeared over the central Pacific Ocean near Howland Island. Fascination with her life, career and disappearance continues to this day.

1943 George Washington Carver (born 1861?) American agricultural chemist, agronomist, and experimenter who helped revolutionize the agricultural economy of the South. Carver demonstrated to farmers how fertility could be restored to their land by diversification, especially by planting peanuts and sweet potatoes, to replenish soil impoverished by the regular growth of cotton and tobacco. He showed that peanuts contained several different kinds of oil, and peanut butter was another of his innovations. In all he is reported to have developed over 300 new products from peanuts and over 100 from sweet potatoes. For most of his career he taught and conducted research at the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama where he stayed despite lucrative offers to work for such magnates as Henry Ford and Thomas Edison.

He became only the third American up to that time to have a national monument erected in his honor. He earned that tribute by overcoming formidable obstacles and disappointments.

To begin with, he was born a slave. During the Civil War, slavers kidnapped his mother and him, but because George had whooping cough, they abandoned him. George's owner, Moses Carver, gave a horse to the man who brought the boy back; and his wife, Susan, nursed the child back to health. George built quite a local reputation as a plant doctor.

But Carver wanted to know things. He watched what people did and imitated them. From a Webster speller, he taught himself to read.

The Emancipation Proclamation freed all slaves. George stayed with the Carvers until he was fourteen, then left home to seek an education. Fortunately for him, he became acquainted with a Christian couple who made a Bible student of him. Thereafter, scripture was his reliable guide to his dying day.

George wandered the midwest, working, saving a little money, going to school, and then working again when pennies ran out. Usually he supported himself by washing clothes, but he also taught himself to paint with homemade paints and won honorable mention for his art in the 1893 World Exhibition. He tried homesteading, but it didn't work out.

Some schools slammed their doors in his face because he was black. Simpson College and Iowa State did not. He stood at the head of his classes. Iowa State made him an assistant professor and he did original research. Yet he longed to do more to help his own people. That's why when Booker T. Washington asked him to join Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute in Alabama, Carver jumped at the chance, although it meant a reduction in working conditions.

The work that he did there, training poor farmers, black and white; the synthetic products he developed for crops; the testimony he gave in the US Senate are well-known.

1963 Rogers Hornsby (b 1896), nicknamed "The Rajah", Major League Baseball second baseman, manager, and coach. He spent the majority of his playing career with the St. Louis Cardinals, though he also played for the Chicago Cubs, the Boston Braves, the New York Giants and the St. Louis Browns. He managed each of these teams at one time or another, and he also managed the Cincinnati Reds. He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1942.

1971 Columbus O'Donnell Iselin (b 1904) American oceanographer, born in New Rochelle, N.Y. As director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (1940-50; 1956-57) in Massachusetts, he expanded its facilities 10-fold and made it one of the largest research establishments of its kind in the world. He developed the bathythermograph and other deep-sea instruments responsible for saving ships during World War II. He made major contributions to research on ocean salinity and temperature, acoustics, and the oceanography of the Gulf Stream.

1981 Harold C. Urey (b 1893) American scientist awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934 for his discovery of deuterium, the heavy form of hydrogen (1932). He was active in the development of the atomic bomb. He contributed to the growing basis for the theory of what was widely accepted as the origin of the Earth and other planets. In 1953, Stanley L. Miller and Urey simulated the effect of lightning in the prebiotic atmosphere of Earth with an electrical discharge in a mixture of hydrogen, methane, ammonia, and water. This produced a rich mixture of aldehydes and carboxylic and amino acids (as found in proteins, adenine and other nucleic acid bases). Urey calculated the temperature of ancient oceans from the amount of certain isotopes in fossil shells.

1985 Robert L. Surtees, A.S.C. (b 1906, Covington, Kentucky - d Monterey, California) American cinematographer who won Academy Awards three times, for the films King Solomon's Mines, The Bad and the Beautiful and the 1959 version of Ben Hur.

Pete Maravich - GREATEST BASKETBALL PLAYER EVER www.youtube.com/watch?v=aODHUP4ZN6s1988 Peter "Pistol Pete" Press Maravich (b 1947) American professional basketball player. Born and raised in Pennsylvania, Maravich starred in college at Louisiana State University (LSU) and played for three NBA teams until injuries induced him to retire in 1980. He is still the all-time leading NCAA Division I scorer with 3,667 points scored and an average of 44.2 points per game. Maravich died suddenly at age 40 during a pick-up game as a consequence of a previously undetected congenital heart defect. One of the youngest players ever inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame, Maravich was cited by the Hall as "perhaps the greatest creative offensive talent in history". In an April 2010 interview, Hall of Fame player John Havlicek said "the best ball-handler of all time was (Pete) Maravich."en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pete_Maravich

1994 Thomas Phillip "Tip" O'Neill, Jr. (b 1912) American politician. O'Neill was an outspoken liberal Democrat and influential member of the U.S. Congress, serving in the House of Representatives for 34 years and representing two congressional districts of Massachusetts. He was the Speaker of the House from 1977 until his retirement in 1987, making him the second longest-serving Speaker in U.S. history after Sam Rayburn, and the longest consecutive serving Speaker.

1995 Semi Joseph Begun (b 1905) German-American inventor who built the first tape recorder for broadcasting (1934), which was later used in the 1936 Olympics. After WW II, he continued to work on magnetic recording media based on coating paper and plastic tape with ferrmagnetic powder suspensions. Begun developed the first consumer tape recorder in the U.S. under the trade name Sound Mirror. He also negotiated the first sourcing agreement for magnetic tape with 3M - which became a major product line. He also invented the Mail-A-Voice, which magnetically recorded on one side of a paper disk for letter correspondence.

1998 Salvatore Phillip "Sonny" Bono (b 1935) American record producer, singer, actor, and politician whose career spanned over three decades. Bono remains the only member of Congress to have scored a #1 pop single on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart. In his characteristically blunt and self-deprecating manner, Sonny Bono transformed himself relatively late in his life, morphing from the shorter, homelier, masculine half of a 1960s husband-and-wife singing and acting sensation (alongside his glamorous third wife, Cher) into a respected California lawmaker and U.S. congressman. On January 5, 1998, Bono’s unusual journey was cut tragically short when he was killed in a skiing accident while on vacation with his family in South Lake Tahoe, California.

The 62-year-old Bono and his fourth wife, Mary, were visiting the Heavenly Ski Resort, located on the Nevada-California border some 55 miles south of Reno, Nevada, with their young son and daughter. The accident occurred when Bono left his family to ski alone on the afternoon of January 5. He was reported missing several hours later, and his body was found that evening. Police said Bono had skied into a wooded area and hit a tree; the cause of death was massive head injuries. Coincidentally, Bono’s death occurred less than a week after another high-profile accident killed Michael Kennedy, the son of the late U.S. Attorney General and U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy, on the ski slopes of Aspen, Colorado.

Born Salvatore Bono in Detroit on February 16, 1935, Bono moved to Los Angeles when he was seven years old. As a young adult he became a songwriter and singer at Specialty Records. He later teamed with the prominent songwriter Phil Spector and sang back-up for the Righteous Brothers. While married to his first wife, Donna Rankin, Bono met the 16-year-old Cherilyn Sarkasian; they made several recordings together, but struck gold with their 1965 mega-hit “I Got You Babe.” Bono divorced Rankin and in 1969 had a daughter, Chastity, with Cher; they later married. In August 1971, the couple’s TV show, The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour, premiered, featuring the tall, dark-haired Cher decked out in spangled designer outfits and the mustachioed Bono playing the straight man in bell-bottom pants. The show’s run lasted until 1974, when the couple split amid rampant gossip about extramarital affairs.

A latecomer to politics (he admitted he voted for the first time at age 54), Bono got his start after he became frustrated by the bureaucratic hassle involved in erecting a new sign at the Italian restaurant he owned in Palm Springs, a city in the Southern California desert with a current population of some 40,000 residents. He was elected mayor of the city in 1988, and four years later ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1994, Bono won a seat in the House of Representatives as part of a sweeping Republican victory in the House led by Speaker Newt Gingrich. As a lawmaker, Bono stuck closely to the conservative agenda, but he was known to reach out across party lines, forming friendships with such prominent liberals as Barney Frank, an openly gay Democratic congressman from Massachusetts. When Bono and Cher’s daughter, Chastity, came out publicly as a lesbian in 1995, her father expressed his love and support, but said he could not reconcile himself to the idea of gay marriage.

Reelected in 1996, Bono continued his campaigns to extend copyright laws and repair the damage done to the Salton Sea, a giant lake in Southern California’s Colorado Desert, by large-scale salt mining operations in the region. After Bono’s death, his widow, Mary Bono, completed the remainder of her husband’s term in the House.www.history.com/this-day-in-history/sonny-bono-killed-in-skiing-accident

2003 Jean Kerr (b 1922) American author and playwright born in Scranton, Pennsylvania and best known for her humorous bestseller, Please Don't Eat the Daisies, and the plays King of Hearts and Mary, Mary. She was married to drama critic Walter Kerr and was the mother of six children.

2004 Frank Edwin "Tug" McGraw Jr. (b 1944) Major League Baseball relief pitcher and the father of Country music singer Tim McGraw and actor/TV personality Mark McGraw and Henry McGraw. He is likely best remembered for recording the final out, via a strikeout of the Kansas City Royals' Willie Wilson, in the 1980 World Series, bringing the Philadelphia Phillies their first world championship. He was the last active major league player to have played under manager Casey Stengel.

2004 Merrill W. Chase (b 1905) American immunologist who was a pioneer in the study of cellular immunology and experimental allergy. In the 1940's, he uncovered a whole new class of immune responses, now called cell-mediated immunity (which aids antibodies in protecting against disease). In his key experiment, he succeeded in transferring immunity against the tuberculosis organism by transferring white blood cells between guinea pigs. By the 1950's, using improved cell culture techniques, other experimenters identified lymphocyte cells (about 25% of white blood cells) as responsible for immunity, and later found different types. T cells are derived from the thymus mediated cellular immunity, and B cells from the bursa of Fabricius (an outgrowth of the cloaca in birds)

2004 Norman George Heatley (b 1911) solved problems in the extraction of penicillin from its mould, and paved the way for mass production. By D-Day of WW II, the Allies had an adequate stock to treat the wounded in danger of serious bacterial infections. Although it was Fleming who accidentally discovered penicillin (1928), it was Heatley who made it practical, making sufficient quantity by 1941 for its first clinical tests. His apparatus included porcelain "bedpans", milk churns and roasting trays to grow the bacteria. Also, an assay method he developed could precisely measure the activity of a sample of penicillin, in what became known as "Oxford units". His production method used pie plates, cookie tins, and a porcelain vessel dubbed the bedpan. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Heatley

2010 Murray Saltzman (b 1929) reform Jewish rabbi and civil rights leader. Born to a Russian-immigrant family, he was the youngest of three sons. He led congregations in Maryland, Indianapolis, and Florida, among them Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation and Baltimore Hebrew Congregation. Saltzman was appointed by President Gerald Ford to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, after marching with Martin Luther King, Jr. and leading in various civil action projects.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murray_Saltzman